The 2006 Offseason Excuse Thread

this is a discussion within the Saints Community Forum; LOL
No, I'm not really that negative... yet... but I do enjoy predicting the next year's offseason excuses at about this time of year to explain why, once again, the Saints were 8-8 and didn't make the playoffs.
Before we ...

No, I'm not really that negative... yet... but I do enjoy predicting the next year's offseason excuses at about this time of year to explain why, once again, the Saints were 8-8 and didn't make the playoffs.

Before we start, here's a recap of the actual excuses the last few years:

2003 - Injuries, Time Playing Together, Professionality - (Solution: Don't to much, the injuries hurt the defense. They really just needed time to jell before they could reach their full potential. After that, just look. Their defense was the highest ranked in the league... wait, you mean the highest number doesn't mean best? Draft and sign "character" guys. )

2004 - O-line, key injuries, Minnesota. (Solution: there really isn't a problem, b/c if Minnesota had just beat Washington the Saints would have made the playoffs. Otherwise, it's all the o-line's fault and Deuce's for getting hurt and coming back out of shape. The 32nd ranked defense played well for a few games, so they're OK. Sign and draft offensive linemen, injury-prone WRs, and another talented QB that you'll let leave through FA in a few years).

OK, so after the 2005 season, what will be the excuse for 8-8? LOL

My first idea: Kicking (which, PS, was kind of the excuse after 2003). Carney will show his age this year and miss some kicks. The Saints will go 8-8 and say, if we only made those few extra kicks, we'd have been to the playoffs. Solution: We sign a "hecuva" kicker in 2006 to fix the problem.

Carney may be a scapegoat, but the fans will definitely bear the brunt of the blame - especially from Benson. He lready started it this summer and then approves an ad saying we gotta have faith. I've got faith alright...8-8 here we come.

Actually, wd, i can sum up why there were all the excuses in 6 words,
THEY DID'NT HAVE THEIR SHIZ TOGETHER..............
as i've said the past 2or3 yrs, if we win the opener, look out.......
and, further, no one puts a lot into the preseason, but i disagree.....
this is where you see what the 1st unit and more importantly, the 2nd and 3rd units can do if anything happens to the first.........
i put a lot more in preseason faith as most probably do because this is where you'll actually see if they have their shiz together......smitty

I agree ssmitty. The preseason is very important, and I think it tells you a lot also. A lot of people (e.g. the poster formerly known as Billy Baloo) mistake the "experts" when they say preseason doesn't matter. I think the better statement is: Preseason Record doesn't matter.

Others claim that the playbooks are totally scaled down and that the "vanilla" schemes that you see aren't representative of what you'll see in the regular season. That may be true, but BOTH teams are likely using the same vanilla schemes. What that means is you can evaluate talent and performance.

If your 1st team QB is throwing balls in the dirt - that does tell you something. If the opponent rushes for 45 yards on 2 series against your 1st team defense, that signals a problem. Winning or losing the game isn't important to me, b/c coaches are experimenting, pushing guys to see how they'll do in different formations or different levels of pressure and situations. But how your first team plays against opposing first teams does tell you something.

All that said, you're far too serious. What the excuse going to be next year ssmitty? Bad turf? Too many fights on airplanes? What?